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Pregnant guppy madness

Since Beretta has announced they are discontinuing the ARX100 the prices have gone through the floor. I went ahead and picked one up for $900 (IIRC the original MSRP was right below 2k). I have to say this thing is impressive.I haven't gotten out to shoot i yet (that'll come this weekend) but the quality, lightweight, and all of the features they packed into it makes me wonder why people weren't able to overcome their revulsion to the appearance of the rifle. Honestly it shoulders very well and all of the controls are right there, no reaching for anything. Anway for what you pay and what you get this is a deal. Softcase, two Beretta marked (obviously Mec-gar) mags, etc for $900.

A quick follow up, couldn't wait so I loaded it up and hit the backyard steel a bit.

Here's my observations:

Workmanship is typical Beretta, always crisp and clean with a nice tight fit and no rattling. Field stripping is too easy, and pulling the barrel for cleaning is as easy as it can get: lock the bolt back, pull the latches down, and yank it out. To put it back in just seat it and push, it snaps back into place with a good loud positive click.

Everything on this rifle can be done with the tip of a bullet.

Ergonomics are outstanding. Only thing I would like is a larger safety lever, but it isn’t a deal breaker. The ‘pregnant guppy” shape isn’t that bad. The beefy side rails can be taken off but that leaves the mounting bulges which are part of the receiver. Dry the rifle feels a little front heavy however loaded it balances out nicely. The rails aren’t really an issue, as I found the back of the rail makes for
a good thumb indexing position. You aren’t going to use a c-clamp grip on this rifle.

Fully ambidextrous out of the box. No disassembly, all it takes is the tip of a round to switch it over.

Lightweight, around 6 lbs. dry.

Length of pull is fine with a PC, may be short without.

The stock sights suck. Sight height with the stock sights is too high, a set of Troy Micros can fix that. I pulled the sights off and used a PA Micro with QD mount and it was at just the right height.

There is an aftermarket cheek riser available pretty cheap.

Trigger pull is on the heavy side, 9-10 lbs. (Typical for a Euro military trigger). The aftermarket trigger can drop that to around 5.

Recoil impulse and muzzle rise is pretty much non-existent. Given how light the rifle is that is impressive.

I zeroed the RDS and test fired using 20 rounds of PMC X-Tac 62g. on a 4” steel plate @ 100 yards. After a couple of rounds to get the RDS on it hit consistently with the remaining rounds. Using a gen2 MOE Pmag I experienced no issues.